Companies get into fights all the time: in the courts, through their advertising, in contract negotiations with partners, and even with their own workers. To some extent, it's just business as usual -- but when those fights escalate, it's often consumers who feel the pain.

Netflix impressed skeptical investors with better-than-expected results on Wednesday night. If you want to know why the stock rallied on the news but you don't want to get your hands dirty by scouring the report, here are your answers.

Shares of Netflix are down nearly 50% year to date for a variety of reasons: The loss of its popular Starz content, the price hikes, and the infamous Qwikster debacle. But online video is still a hot market. Here's a closer look at three companies that could profit from Netflix's missteps.

Recession-weary Americans trying to save on home entertainment just took another punch in their DVD slots. Blockbuster Express just became the third major distributor to increase its video prices recently -- doubling the fee to rent its semi-new releases to $2 as of Tuesday.

The Qwikster jokes are already old, and it's back to business as usual for video buffet operator Netflix -- or is it? Its stock prices are low, and there are lingering questions. But Netflix can make it right with the public again, starting with cleaning up these three big messes it recently made.

The Netflix Goliath was seriously weakened this week when Starz said it will pull its content from the company's streaming feed in February: Is it time for the industry Davids such as Redbox, Blockbuster and Amazon to pull out their slingshots?

Under the renewed agreements with the studios, there's a 28-day window in which new-release DVDs won't be available on Netflix. This echoes a similar deal the online movie rental service struck with Time Warner.